Research

Dr. Wang's research interest focuses on energy transport and conversion at small length- and time-scales, specifically, fundamental investigations of thermal transport at the micro- and nano-scale for a number of applications. These include engineered materials for thermal and electrical energy conversion, namely photovoltaics, solar energy utilization, semiconductor thermal processing, and thermoelectric devices. Current research projects are mainly twofold: (1) utilizing ultrafast laser spectroscopy to investigate thermal transport properties of materials and interfaces, and (2) exploring material radiative properties and the optical response of micro/nano-engineered structures when they interact with light, which provides insight for designing such structures for better control of spectral, directional, and polarization selectivities.

We find a multidisciplinary approach particularly useful in studying micro/nanoscale thermal transport, given the complexity of interacting heat carriers combined with the exotic physics of nanostructures. In the Wang lab, various characterization instruments will be employed including a time domain thermoreflectance system based on the pump-probe technique, an integrating sphere/double monochromator, and a home-built optical scatterometer.